Second Chances
by TheDarkTulip
Summary: Death claims three young lives in a terrible accident, and then the Allspark claims them back and gives them a second chance at life. The only condition? They are now...sparklings. Join Catherine, Marie and Charlotte as they live and grow in a whole new world. M for dark themes.
1. Chapter 1

**Set before all the movies and maybe before the creation of Earth itself I'm not entirely sure! Haha!**

**So I haven't written a transformers story in a while but here it is! An OC-centric fic with pairings galore and some angst to boot. Hope ya'll enjoy the fic!**

**Read and Review guys!**

**Tulip Out.**

_Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears._

_Arthur Koestler_

There are people in this world, who when they hear the word 'no' actually think 'challenge accepted'.

Catherine Rye was one of those people. Catherine was not ashamed to admit that she was one of those people, nor was she ashamed to admit that it was a stupid thing to do and had often gotten her into trouble.

Catherine was ashamed to say it got her and her two closest friends killed.

It wasn't even a dangerous stunt, in fact it was something Catherine had done hundreds of times before both alone and with her friends.

Catherine was a regular user of the local scrap yard, she would make herself a makeshift ramp, strap on her skates and fly. Marie and Charlotte came along to watch, and occasionally provide a small amount of first aid because hey, slag happens.

So when Catherine flew through her gradually growing skate park she didn't think much of the occasional creak, nor the fact that her friends had perched themselves underneath one of the lopsidedly stacked cars. Catherine didn't notice the give in her metal ramps as she flew, so when she fell through the ramp she shrieked.

Her friends laughed when she landed with a thud beside them.

They all laughed as Catherine caught her breath, drowning the sounds of creaking as the car tipped.

They laughed as Catherine rolled onto her stomach and the car started to fall.

The car fell down to them unknowing as they laughed, then the car landed.

They stopped laughing.


	2. Chapter 2

When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.

Viktor E. Frankl

_**Do you wish to live?**_

_I don't want to die._

_**Do you understand that this life will not be like your first? That this time, you will have a job to do, an important job.**_

_Please, please I'm scared, I don't want to die._

_**I want to let you live, but you must understand that if I let you live you cannot tell anyone directly of who you once were, of what you once were.**_

_I wont tell them, but please, what will I become?_

_**You are going to become a very special sparkling, you and your friends were meant to grow old and change the world in your age, but the world decided that you were needed here. I will guide you only when you most need it, and you will change the future in this world rather than your own.**_

_Who are you?_

_**I am the Allspark, and it is time for you to join your new family in your new life.**_

_Please, don't leave me alone._

_**One thing you shall never be child, is alone.**_

Heaviness was the first thing Catherine felt when her mind started to come into focus, and a voice fading into the back of her mind. She moved sluggishly, and something whirred gently as she did so.

The whirring sound was soothing, and something was cooing at her with this strange clicking sound she didn't recognise but somehow knew. She forced her eyes open, and found that they adjusted almost automatically to the dim lighting around her.

The cooing stopped, and Catherine recognised the shushing sounds that were being made at her and the snarling she could hear from behind some sort of door or something. She was being placed on the floor and finally a face peered into her vision, a huge strange freaky face that made her squawk in distress.

The metal face made those shushing noises again and turned to the banging behind the door, covering Catherine with something metallic and thin. Catherine recognised the danger she was in and fell silent, listening as something exploded, something screeched, something fell and then something _laughed._

Catherine was pretty sure she'd just heard a murder.

Catherine was silent for a very long time, waiting for a sign that she would be rescued from the darkness she had been hidden in. It took a long time but eventually she heard noises, that clicking sound from before and she started to squawk.

She squawked until the cover was removed and a new face peered down at her, a new metal face.

_What _are_ these things?!_

It lifted her up, carrying her like a newborn and rushed her away from the danger zone she had been left in. She didn't see whatever it was that had protected her, and she never would again but she did glimpse the wreckage that had been her brief safe haven.

She could hear distant fighting, yelling in that strange foreign tongue and the sound of whatever was holding her cooing softly and heavily at her to keep her silent and still.

Catherine was no idiot, she knew to be quiet in a war zone.

When the sound of battle had finished, Catherine realised that she was much, _much_ smaller than whatever was holding her. Catherine was seventeen, and tall for her age, so she shouldn't have been dwarfed so much by…

_Wait a second…sparkling…the Allspark…called me a…sparkling?!_

Suddenly it made sense, Catherine had died hadn't she, died and been saved by the Allspark. That was why she was so small, and why they were cooing at her, it was because she was a _baby._

Catherine had been a transformers fan, and now she…was one? And what of Marie and Charlotte? The Allspark had said something about them…where were they?

She started to shriek now, because that was all she could do, she didn't understand how Cybertronians spoke and now she'd have to learn how to be one of them.

She was scared and frustrated and wanted to go home, except she had agreed to be here because she was scared. Fear seemed to have ruined everything for her, that and her stubbornness.

The Cybertronian holding her tried harder to calm her and she knew she was causing trouble for them but lord she was being controlled by her emotions so much right now and she just couldn't stop screaming.

_You said I wouldn't be alone! Where are my friends!?_

There was no response from the Allspark and she continued to scream and wail and cry because she didn't know how to do anything else right now. Even now there was practical silence, only curious chirping filling the air she still wailed.

She was passed over to somebody new and she wailed, this new voice cooed her and chirped to her carefully to try and calm her and slowly she started to stop. Hiccupping as she tried to control her own body, which was damn near impossible and it almost made her start wailing again.

"_You are loud Cath!"_

Her head span around and curled, trying to find the source of the voice, and her eyes (actually, now she thought about it, they were optics weren't they?) landed on a pair of small robots sat on some sort of giant robo-crib.

"_Marie! Charlotte!"_

Catherine reached out for them, desperate for her friends no matter how they looked and she was placed on the crib beside them. She almost fell for lack of control over her own body, but whoever had hold of her settled her so she could sit upright with her friends.

"_It took them forever to find you, I woke up here and Marie was found like an hour later." _Charlotte explained reaching forwards and patting away the…tears…that she had been crying with her podgy metal hands. Catherine let her, and then scooted closer to the two of them.

"_Whoever was looking after me hid me and got killed, I think by a Decepticon but I didn't see."_

The three of them sat talking until they fell asleep, curled around one another as they were watched by a much older mech.

"Prime help us." Ratchet grunted with affection, as the last three sparklings on Cybertron rested in stasis.

Things were about to get interesting at the Autobot HQ.


	3. Chapter 3

The three sparklings chattered away to each other in a language that only they knew and understood whilst Optimus, Ratchet and Prowl stood watching them. They were all healthy, but they were also terribly young and would need a carer each.

Hence the three mechs currently stood watching them, deliberating on how they would handle this situation.

"I wish I knew what they were saying." Optimus noted absently and Prowl nodded in agreement.

"I have been recording their speech, but have so far been unable to make any sense. Likely it is just sparkling speech, clearly they knew each other before they were...separated, from their carers." Ratchet informed them as the three chirped in delight.

"But to have that level of understanding in their speech, at such a young age…clearly they are much more advanced than most sparklings at this point in their development." Prowl inclined and Ratchet could not help but agree.

"There is no doubt that the three of them possess higher intelligence than practically all sparklings I have ever dealt with, but they are still just _sparklings._"

Optimus knew where this was going and beat the medical officer to the punch.

"They need guardians, but I cannot understand why you would decide that the three busiest mechs should care for them."

Ratchet grunted "I am aware, but just as Prowl said, they are _advanced, _I doubt most mechs and femmes would know how to handle a sparkling, let alone one with advanced mental capacities."

Prowl hummed his understanding "So you picked the mechs you believed capable of handling a sparkling of advanced mental capacities and the ability to further that natural mental aptitude."

Ratchet clicked in agreement, Optimus held in the small smirk when he realised that Ratchet had not only put Optimus and Prowl forwards but himself as well.

"Not to mention, if Ironhide can handle Bumblebee then we can surely handle these young femmes."

Optimus did smile this time, and the three of them shifted closer to the chattering femmes. The three of them slowly went silent, watching the mechs with wide blue optics.

"Well…" Ratchet began waving his hands "take your pick."

The three sparkling femmes chattered in hushed voices to one another, giggling and pointing at the three mechs conspiringly and Optimus was reminded that they were advanced. How advanced? Well, he doubted he'd ever know.

"Do they have names?" Prowl asked moving tentatively towards the three femmes, looking the most anxious of the three.

"If they did they are lost now, I doubt they would even remember anyway." Ratchet grumbled, wiggling his fingers at the three of them, amusing them to no end.

Prowl took another tentative step, reaching down to the three and lifting the largest of the three femmes gingerly into his arms, making sure to support her head. The little femme seemed happy enough, curling into his chest plates and purring at the warmth she found there by his spark.

Ratchet was less hesitant, having handled sparklings before and took the second sparkling (and the smallest) into his arms, she gurgled and patted his face. The sparkling on the table laughed, Optimus wondered what she had said as she patted Ratchets face.

Optimus stared down at the final femme, who was looking up at him with wide blue optics. She had an expression that seemed to say 'well, what are you waiting for?' and he scooped her up into his arms carefully.

She _seemed _happy enough, but Optimus, much like Prowl, had never handled a sparkling before. When Bumblebee had been this small Ironhide and Chromia had kept him under constant watch and barely let anyone visit other than Ratchet.

Sparklings were no more, the well extinguished, and these three had simply fallen into their laps. Optimus dreaded to think what might have happened if Megatron had managed to find them before the Autobots did.

"Take them with you for a few cycles," Ratchet instructed "talk to them, try and connect. If they don't then they don't, but I'd rather they did."

Optimus nodded and carried his new charge with him back to his personal chambers, Ratchet had given him a crib the day before (ditto with Prowl) so they could be homed as quickly as possible and he would let her recharge now.

He just hoped she wouldn't do as Bumblebee did, Primus he had a set of vocal processors on him.

XXX

Ratchet had never met a sparkling with such a distinctive personality as the little femme sat on his medical berth, refusing to sit still and just let him perform the medical exams on her.

"Please sweetling," He soothed "they aren't going to hurt, I need to make sure your defences are at a good standard."

She squirmed again but after a few moments she sat rigid and still, bracing herself for something she clearly didn't realise _wouldn't hurt._

"Primus, I'm going to have my hands full aren't I?" He asked aloud, barely turning as the door slid open and he was suddenly joined.

"Hey Ratch! Think you could patch up my-" Sunstreaker was suddenly at his side, peering down at the berth "-is that a sparkling?!"

On the medical table, the femme squealed at the sudden presence and volume and fell onto her back. Ratchet smacked Sunstreaker upside the head and reached down for the whimpering femme.

"Do you mind? I just got her settled." He scolded, rocking the sparkling and shushing her with gentle words.

Sunstreaker stared, then after a few moments he moved his fingers and wiggled them at her looking like a sparkling himself. She stared at him, reached up and wiggled her fingers back. Ratchet scoffed, she had gone into recharge so well last night and had woken up happy and bubbly, but now she seemed to have a condescending edge to her movements.

"I can't…a sparkling…an actual sparkling…" Sunstreaker babbled in a soft voice, still staring at her.

Ratchet had almost forgotten that sparklings no longer came into this world, and allowed Sunstreaker his moment of wonder to stare at her before he placed her back on the berth.

"When did you find her?" Sunstreaker asked, awestruck as he watched her.

"They were found-"

"THEY? THERE'S MORE?!"

Yet again the femme was startled into screaming, flailing her arms as she began to lose balance and slowly teetered backwards. Ratchet lurched his hand forwards and managed to catch her, scooping her back up to once again soothe her.

"Will you be quiet? Primus she's just a _sparkling. _Yes there are more, three femmes all the same age but not a trine." He rocked gently, patting her back almost robotically "They were found out on patrol, and nobody is to know about them until they are older for safety reasons _are we clear?_"

Sunstreaker nodded, turning suddenly sheepish.

"Can I…can I hold her?"

Ratchet wanted to tell him no, he could not hold her, but then he remembered way back at the start of the war when the twins had been young, and they'd had a sister to hold and coo over. He remembered the day that the three of them became two, and their poor sparkling sister had been killed in recharge by the cons.

Ratchet let him hold her, let him fawn over her for a little while. Perhaps Sideswipe could know, simply because nothing remained a secret between the two of them and Primus knew they were still mourning.

"She's got fire in her spark Ratch," He whispered "I can feel it."

Ratchet agreed, she did have fire in her spark.

"My little Spitfire."


	4. Chapter 4

Primus what was Prowl doing?

He'd read every file there was on sparklings, could recite it backwards, and yet he still felt so completely _lost _with her sat watching him. It wasn't even like he could ask her either, she didn't have any grasp of speech yet.

"I should talk to you. So that you grow accustomed to my voice and to speech." He stated, and they watched each other like they were caught in limbo.

She seemed happy enough just to watch him, but if she was anything like Bumblebee had been in his youth then she would soon grow bored. He had already tried imitating Ratchet and wiggling his fingers at her, but she had been less than impressed by the actions, stubbornly refusing to be amused by it.

"I confess I am unqualified for this job. Perhaps it would be better if Ratchet found someone more suitable."

The door swished open and he recognised Jazz's light footsteps as he attempted to startle Prowl, he knew as always that it would end in failure but Prowl turned before he had even made it halfway across the room.

Jazz looked almost comical halfway across the room ready to pounce with his body curled backwards ready, and with such a disappointed look on his face.

"Aw! Prowler, you ruined mah game!"

Prowl rolled his eyes and beckoned his closest friends over with his hand, stepping aside so that he could see the femme on his desk. Jazz moved forwards without hesitation and made noises at her.

"Here she is, I wondered where she would end up after we found her…wait wasn't there two sparklings?"

"Three, another was found later in the same quadrant, their parental units had all hidden them and been offlined for it." Prowl explained, watching as the little femme seemed even less impressed by Jazz than he had by Prowl.

She took a few moments to arrange her five digits and then extend them at Jazz, all but her centre digits were curled up, so that the middle finger was stood upright.

"Ha, I think she likes me." Jazz smirked triumphantly.

Something told Prowl that she wasn't doing it out of friendship, he almost told himself that a sparkling her age could not possibly know what respect was but then he remembered that she and the others were mentally advanced.

Perhaps that single finger had a meaning, and perhaps the other two sparklings would understand it whereas he would not.

"Ratchet has another, Optimus the third." Prowl explained curtly, feeling a sudden pang of jealously that maybe she did like Jazz more.

This pang vanished when Jazz went to lift her, and she bit one of his digits. Jazz wrenched away and almost pulled her with him, but Prowl was there to keep her from being flung across the room and hurt.

"Fragging thing!" Jazz cursed and Prowl scowled at him.

"Refrain from that kind of language around her, I don't want her to pick up those kinds of habits." He scolded, holding her against his chest and watching her curl into the warmth as she seemed want to do.

Prowl could not deny the swell of warmth he felt when he realised she did indeed like him more than she liked Jazz. Prowl decided then that Ratchet did _not _need to find her a new home, she would be very happy here with him.

"So, she gotta name?" Jazz asked, holding his finger gingerly, as if she could hurt him with her dentures at this current point in her development.

"Not yet, I am still thinking but…" He watched her with soft optics "perhaps…Nightwire, seems suitable for her."

Jazz nodded, Nightwire did sound good, rolled off of his tongue easily too.

"Nightwire, try to help ya daddy loosen a few gaskets will ya?"

XXX

Optimus watched the little sparkling as curiously as she watched him, she had scrunched up her face in what he gathered was concentration as she stared at him. Then she relaxed her face and started reaching out towards him, opening and closing her little hands in what even Optimus knew what the universal sign for 'lift me up'.

So Optimus reached forwards and lifted her up, keeping her held tight against his chassis where she clung to the corners of his armour happily enough.

He still hadn't thought of a name.

He'd considered naming her after his femme parental unit, Spiral, but after rolling the name around a few times it just didn't seem to fit.

"You are a complicated little femme, perhaps Ratchet may help shed some light on a name." He mumbled to himself, carrying her absentmindedly to the medical bay where he, Prowl and Ratchet had decided to meet a mere three cycles after collecting the sparklings.

Prowl was stood inside scowling at Jazz as he tried to coerce the little femme from Prowls arms, and Ratchet was watching with caution as…was that the twins?

"Prime!" Sunstreaker greeted as Sideswipe swayed gently, holding the little femme in his arms with adoration.

"Optimus sir, how has she been?" Prowl asked turning away from Jazz who still was waving at the little femme in Prowls arms.

"She has been strangely well behaved for someone her age, she did not cry out nor become irritated though I did not know what I was doing." He told them and Prowl nodded.

"Nightwire has been much the same."

Ah, so he had named her Nightwire, a pretty little name for a young femme and one that seemed right for Prowl to pick.

"As has Spitfire."

Nightwire and Spitfire.

Sunstreaker looked curiously at Optimus.

"Have you named her yet?"

Optimus' reply was cut off when the sparklings themselves engaged in a conversation.


	5. Chapter 5

_Italic Speech _- English

_**Bold Italic **_- Comm. link

Regular - Cybertronian

Catherine sat in the mechs arms comfortably, listening to the strange chirping and clicking sounds they made to speak. Boy did she wish she knew what they were saying, some of the clicks made a little sense to her but they weren't so much words as _tone._ The soothing tones, the coaxing tones, she understood basically what they were trying to explain to her when they spoke but that was the extent of it.

"_Any luck with the language barrier?" _Marie called over to her from her mech as Catherine had taken to thinking of them, although she could swear she knew them!

"_Negative, I did flip the bird at the big silver one though, he didn't seem to understand so I bit him." _Charlotte explained casually and the three of them giggled.

"_Either of you feel like you know these bots? I mean, I'm pretty sure the red and white mech is Ratchet but I'm still muddling out the others." _Catherine asked and the other two nodded.

"_Well, if red and white is Ratchet, then surely silver is Jazz." _Marie suggested _"Which means big black must be Prowl right?"_

Catherine agreed with a grin _"Those two, the red and yellows ones? Could they be Sunny and Sides?"_

Suddenly the three of them were alive with ideas and thoughts on the mechs that surrounded them.

"_Which means the big guy holding you, old red and blue must be Optimus!" _Charlotte finally called with delight and the three of them cheered at their discovery.

Then the mechs holding them shifted and placed them together on the berth, standing around them and watching intently. They were talking to each other, and the three of them shrugged the best they could in their sparkling bodies and continued talking.

"_Do you think the Allspark wanted us to…do something?" _Marie asked timidly, not entirely comfortable with the level of attention they were receiving.

"_He…or it…said we had a job to do ri-what the hell are you doing?" _Catherine was interrupted by Maybe-Optimus holding something in front of her.

Marie and Charlotte burst into peals of laughter, watching as Maybe-Optimus held it out for her to inspect with her prodding fingers.

"_I think it's a bottle…after all we are meant to…ingest? Ingest energon." _Marie put forwards and Catherine pulled the nib of the bottle towards her mouth, the glowing green liquid sloshing around inside.

Catherine looked up at Maybe-Optimus with an undecipherable look, one of mild contempt and irritation as well as amusement. Maybe-Optimus started clicking at her, moving the nib down to her mouth where she pulled away slightly and glowered at him.

"_I know how to use a damn bottle, but give a girl her pride would you?"_

Then, she moved forwards and placed her mouth around the nib and she drank, and wow did it taste good! Catherine liked the taste so much that she drank the entire bottle all at once, letting the nib pop from her mouth when Maybe-Optimus took it away.

"_Hey, I was going to chew on that."_

Maybe-Optimus seemed to hesitate, but allowed for Maybe-Ratchet to refill it and hand it to Marie. Marie was less keen on the idea of drinking from the robot equivalent of a baby bottle.

"_You need drink it dummy, you'll die if you don't." _Charlotte huffed at her as Maybe-Ratchet tried to entice her into drinking it with those clicking-chirping sounds they all made.

"_Oh come on! This is humiliating!" _Marie argued, looking very much an infant as she pushed the bottle away from her face stubbornly.

"_I did it." _Catherine informed her sternly and Marie sighed.

"_You but we all know you don't have any humility when it comes to food."_

Catherine yelled obscenities at her as she continued to stubbornly refuse.

XXX

Spitfire clearly did not want the energon that Ratchet was offering her, but Optimus was more interested in the conversation the three of them seemed to be having. Nightwire and his little femme seemed to be trying to convince Spitfire to drink it.

"Are they seriously having a conversation?" Sunstreaker asked quietly as they watched.

His little femme looked up at him with a frown, then back at Spitfire angrily. They started yelling across the table at each other, and Prowl lifted Nightwire from the fray to try and calm them, Optimus did the same with his little femme.

Still they screamed at each other, until out of frustration Spitfire clamped her mouth over the bottle and drank it all. The mechs stood baffled and shocked, had they just witness an argument?

"Ratchet, tell me ya recorded that?" Jazz asked and Ratchet nodded dumbly as he refilled the bottle once more for Nightwire who drank it obediently just as his little femme had.

"Mentally advanced does not even begin to explain them, imagine their mental capacities when they grow older…" Ratchet mumbled to himself, clearly taking mental notes about the interaction.

"Oh yeah Prime! You never did tell us her name." Sideswipe suddenly remembered and Optimus pondered.

"I have yet to find a name suitable." He admitted but the gathering did not seemed perturbed.

"Well, there are plenty of femme names you could use…" Ratchet began filtering through files of femme names and the others considered the options, staring intently at his little femme.

Optimus and his little femme stared at each other, her big blue eyes intent and bright, a small smile played at her lips as she reached out and placed her hand on his chassis above his spark.

"Perhaps…" He interrupted the others as they thought of names "Starblast."

Starblast peered up at him, he didn't know whether or not she understood that this was her name, but he'd make sure he said it often so that she would.

"Spitfire, Nightwire and Starblast." Jazz said, smirking at the names.

"In a few orns we can introduce them to Bumblebee, he should be a good influence on them and the age gap is not as great as it would be with anyone else." Ratchet told them using his fingers to coo at Spitfire.

Once they were sure the three femmes had calmed down, they were placed back down on the berth to converse further. Ratchet was recording everything they said so that maybe he could try and decipher it, but the sounds they made were unlike anything he had ever heard before.

Perhaps it was just advanced sparkling speech, sparklings were known to create basic speech patterns when they spent a lot of time with others and this kind of speech was common in twins and trines.

Except they weren't a trine.

"They understand tone," Prowl decided indulge in talking about the three of them whilst there were people around that could assist "is this normal for sparklings their age?"

Ratchet frowned "I have noticed this, it is not uncommon for sparklings to have a good grasp of tone, some sparklings do and some don't, the ones that do tend to pick up speech quicker than those that don't."

Optimus nodded, smiling down at Starblast, well, how much of a handful could she really be? He could see she would grow to be an intelligent femme, all three of them would of that he was sure. He had no doubt that just like Bumblebee, Ratchet will ensure they have the best education they could, Jazz and Ironhide would ensure they could hold their own and Prowl would ensure they knew how to be sensible.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker would be there along with Bumblebee so they could grow happy and surrounded by laughter, which was what he had always wanted if he had a sparkling. He remembered Elita-One, they way she would light up when she spoke of the sparkling they would one day create and he wondered, would Starblast be like her?

"Look! Nightwire is doing that thing with her middle digit again!"

The thought was knocked from his mind, Elita-One had been gone for many orns now so Starblast could never truly be like her, so she would be like him. Somehow, Optimus didn't think she would mind.


	6. Chapter 6

_Italic Speech _- English

_**Bold Italic **_- Comm. link

Regular - Cybertronian

As time passed Catherine found that speech would not be as hard a barrier as she had thought, she went regularly to Ratchets for medical exams and Optimus spoke to her no matter what he was going.

Slowly but surely, Catherine was starting to pick up the words and learn her new language. Marie and Charlotte were learning too, and now they all knew their own names.

Starblast was what they called her, it was a pretty enough name and she wasn't going to complain about it. Marie was now Spitfire, and Charlotte now Nightwire.

The three of them had agreed to no longer use their human names because this was their life now, they weren't human anymore. They would speak English only until they had mostly mastered speech, and, in emergencies.

Optimus was talking to her again, she recognised the names he used and some of the more common words but still not enough to truly understand what he was telling her, she listened aptly all the same.

Starblast and Nightwire could crawl around now, and Spitfire had taken a few unsteady steps not long ago. This was good, the time seemed to pass quicker now they were focusing on learning and not on the past. Starblast felt that they'd adapted well to this new scenario, and the fact that they'd had no help from the Allspark since it had sent them to Cybertron.

Optimus spoke to her gently as he lifted her, she heard Ratchets name and knew they were going for another medical. Another word she had learnt was 'scan' because that was all Ratchet seemed to do, that and a few other things she didn't entirely understand.

Spitfire had suggested they were like the jabs you got as a baby, and that made a whole lot of sense really because they could still get ill even though they were robots because they were alive. Anything living can get ill.

They arrived in good time and Optimus quickly placed her with Spitfire, Nightwire and Prowl had yet to arrive which meant she and Spitfire had time to talk and teach each other new words. All the words Spitfire tended to learn were medic based but they were always good to know.

"_We've got names down check, but what is that one Ratchet keeps using?" _Starblast tried to imitate the sound but knew it was a poor attempt, even so Spitfire seemed to understand.

"_Pretty sure it means recharge, he always says it to me before he puts me in the crib." _

They repeated it a few times to each other, trying to get it right and when Nightwire joined the three of them tried to mimic it. Ratchet continued recording even as they tried to master the word, happy that they were developing at a good rate.

Ratchet moved forwards and lifted Starblast from the medical berth and onto the smaller berth he had reserved just for the sparklings, he started scanning and checking her internal functions. He had originally been worried about trauma because of the war zone they had been found in, yet the three of them fell into recharge as easily as anybot.

"_Hey Spit, does Ratchet make a good dad?" _Starblast called as she was scanned, giving Ratchet her arm when he asked and letting him connect something to one of the ports there.

It made her arm tingle, but she knew that Ratchet would never do anything to hurt her so she didn't show any sign of discomfort.

"_Don't know, it's hard to judge when you can't understand most of what he's saying, but he feeds me and cuddles me and all that stuff so I guess so."_

Nightwire decided to chime in _"What's Prime like as a dad?"_

Starblast considered this, there was little she could say, other than what Spitfire had told them about Ratchet.

"_I think the same, although he is a little…I don't know…shy, sometimes? I don't think he's ever looked after a sparkling before." _

They two of them looked expectantly at Nightwire.

"_Prowl is better than you'd think, he's a bit overprotective but only really when Jazz is around, I've already learnt how to say two curse words." _

Ratchet unhooked Starblast and placed her back with the other sparklings, then he lifted Nightwire to repeat the procedure. After this the three of them would need only one more visit and they could begin integrating with other bots around the base, mostly the higher ups because some young bots could be foolish on the battlefield.

Today however would be slightly different from most check ups, as the door swished open and Ironhide strode in with Bumblebee sat on his hip like it was the most mechish thing in the world, Chromia walked just behind listening to Bumblebee's excited speech.

"So they're actually little femmes?!" He repeated and Ratchet got the feeling he'd been asking that a lot on the way there.

"Why don't you see for yourself." Chromia smirked, nodding her head at the berth and when Bee twisted around in Ironhide's arms to see just as Ratchet was placing Nightwire back on the berth, he'd done Spitfire's updates a while ago now.

Bumblebee yelled in delight as Ironhide placed him down and he immediately rushed over to the berth to see the three of them, Bumblebee barely reached Ratchet's waste and had to be lifted so he could stand on a chair and see the there of them clearly.

"Hey there! I'm Bumblebee!" He chattered excitedly, Ironhide chuckled, wrapping a caring arm around Chromia's waist as they watched their charge interact with the three little femmes.

"This is my sparkling, Spitfire." Ratchet told him, pointing to his femme because the three of them were very indistinct at the moment.

"That is Prowls sparkling Nightwire, and she is Optimus' sparkling, Starblast."

"Are they a trine? They all look the same!" Bee chattered excitedly, and Jazz hummed in agreement.

"Well after their final medical we can see about putting a little colour into their frames." Ratchet suggested, looking towards Prowl and Optimus to ensure it was alright, but both of them seemed to agree.

They could tell their femmes apart, but the rest of the crew might make mistakes and the confusion could be irritating and may waste time. Besides, the three of them wouldn't want to be mistaken for each other and Ratchet knew that many unmarked 'bots detested the plainness of their framework and often changed it as soon as they were able.

"They can change it when they get older if they so wish." Prowl agreed sensibly, Jazz grinned and clapped Prowl heartily on the back as the two of them stared warmly at Nightwire.

Ratchet knew that Nightwire was going to end up with both of them as her carers, because the only people that didn't know the two of them were meant to be were the two of them, and Ratchet suspected Jazz had known it all along anyway.

XXX

Starblast had recognised Bumblebee instantly, it was hard not to when he was that shade of sunshine yellow, not to mention he was still a kid himself! That was probably why he'd been brought she realised, so that he'd not be lonely as the youngest kid on base.

She just wished she could say his name in Cybertronian so that they could get to know him better. Starblast looked up at Optimus helplessly but he was busy talking with the other mechs to notice her communication problems.

"Starblast." She finally gurgled, Bumblebee grinned at her and clicked excitedly, he pointed to himself and made several clicking noises.

"_I don't know if my infant robo-lips can manage that." _Starblast grunted and Nightwire nodded encouragingly.

"_If we can speak in perfect English despite the fact we technically have no lips, we can speak the language are bodies were made to."_

The three of them started clicking, trying to master Bumblebee's name. It took several long moments but eventually they were saying it to a good standard. Bumblebee clapped every time they got it right and even the mechs had started chattering down at them happily.

"_Well, it may be only little crack, but we have started to crack the language barrier." _Spitfire cheered.

"_Now we just have to master coherent sentences." _


	7. Chapter 7

_Italic Speech _- English

_**Bold Italic **_- Comm. link

Regular - Cybertronian

By the time the three femmes were walking, the communication barrier had practically been demolished. Ratchet was constantly surprised by the speed in which the three of them grasped concepts most sparklings would not, he hadn't seen sparklings like this since Prowl had been a youngling, and Ratchet had been quite sprightly then himself.

He knew the three of them would go on to do amazing things, but until then they were just three mischievous sparklings.

Three mischievous sparklings knocking oil onto the floor and drawing pictures in it.

Ratchet grumbled and lifted the three of them away from the oil, dropping a few rags on it that he would clear later, for now he had to clean them.

The three of them laughed as he mopped their faces, digits and peds clean of the oil and then he stared down at them as sternly as he could while those six big blue optics stared up at him.

"If you want to make a mess, then you need to let me set up a space. This is the medical bay, even if it is the private bay and I can't let any sort of infection get in." He explained carefully, the three of them chattered in their little language before they chorused up at him sweetly.

"Sorry Ratcheeet!"

"Sorry Ratch!"

"Sorry papa!"

Primus, his spark would always skip a pulse when Spitfire called him that, almost made him forget they'd made a mess on the floor. Almost.

"Just don't do it again." He scolded, but there was no spark behind it because until they got older those puppy optics were going to have everyone wrapped around their little digits.

He left them to themselves again, keeping a stern optic on them as he read through the latest file reports Prowl had delivered along with Nightwire and Starblast. They had managed to make a schedule that would allow them all the care for the femmes whilst doing their jobs during the day, then the femmes would return to their parents every night to recharge.

Ratchet knew in a few clicks that Ironhide would be here the collect the three of them so that they could spend time with Bumblebee, who at last could spend time with children and not the twins. The twins had tried, harder than Ratchet had ever seen them try before, to be responsible for Bumblebee and to make him feel like one of them, but responsibility just wasn't in their programming.

Bumblebee had felt happy at least, even when he was laughing at his surrogate brothers as Ratchet clapped them upside the head with his wrench. Ratchet knew they'd try with the femmes, because every time they looked at them they saw the sister than never got to grow into the femme she deserved to be.

Femmes were still being culled left right and centre, only a fraction remained. Chromia and Arcee had been rendered unable to breed after Ratchet had been forced to remove their breeding units, Chromia had been hit especially hard, poor femme had always wanted a sparkling.

There were small groups of femmes remaining, but after the cull had began many went off world and the ones that remained either had their units removed by a medic, or became warriors. Megatron had initiated the cull, but even he couldn't control his mechs desires and Ratchet knew too much of forced bonding by the cons.

It made his spark lurch to think about it, now more so than ever because of his own precious sparkling.

"Hey Ratch, I'm here to collect the femmes - Ratchet are you alright?"

Ratchet turned to Ironhide, he hadn't realised how much he had bonded with Spitfire until the idea that the cons could do…_that, _that unspeakable thing to his little girl.

"Of course." He bit in his traditional grouchy voice "Merely thinking, you know what time to bring them home."

Ratchet leaned down and placed the gentle kiss on Spitfires helm before Ironhide collected them all up, sparing another glance at Ratchet before he took them out to join Bee and Chromia until it was time for them to recharge.

Ratchet had to go out into the medical wards today to do some extensive rounds after that last battle, the decepticons getting steadily closer to Iacon with every attack and leaving more injured then they could handle.

"_**Wheeljack, how are the energon stores looking?" **_He called across his comm.

"_**Looking good Ratchet, the team found a large quantity a few clicks ago and have began mining it, they think it'll take at least a cycle to get all of it!"**_

Ratchet hummed over his link in satisfaction, it was about time they found a good energon store. The cons never seemed to run out of the stuff, not to mention Megatron had been playing with dark energon and that did things to a bot that Ratchet didn't even want to think about.

"_**How're the femmes?" **_Wheeljack asked in what he must have thought was a casual tone.

The sparklings had been introduced to a few more mechs, some had accidentally come across them during medicals just as the twins had and some had been chosen to meet them instead.

"_**Barely a breem old and they've got everyone suckered in."**_

He could feel Wheeljack's amusement.

"_**Good then?"**_

"…_**very."**_

Ratchet wasn't surprised that the femmes were adored, nobody was able to resist three sparklings especially at this stage in their development. He knew in a few more cycles they'd need their first frames, built specially to ensure good posture and healthy growth for their protoforms.

He'd spent a very long time creating these frames, the femmes each had picked a colour and their parents the other so that they were two coloured, a theme favoured by almost every Cybertronian on the planet.

His own little Spitfire had picked silver, and Ratchet had picked red meaning her theme would be similar to his own. He had asked her as plainly as he could but she didn't mind, she seemed happy to have the same theme as her father.

Nightwire had decided on periwinkle blue, Prowl had chosen black.

Jazz had tried to dissuade the mech to picking something brighter but Prowl had denied him, and Nightwire didn't seem to mind the darkness in contrast to her light.

Starblast had chosen an electric blue, Optimus had chosen red.

Ratchet wasn't sure who was more excited for them to try on their first frames, the femmes themselves, or their parents. No, scrap that, Optimus, Prowl and himself were all much more excited than the femmes.

XXX

Starblast knew that she shouldn't have done it, but when Chromia had told her 'no' she had immediately thought YES! Primus would she ever learn?

So here she was perched on top of some hunk of scrap that Ironhide had left in a rush to get to an emergency meeting with Optimus, Chromia was sat in her quarters head resting on her palm as she recharged softly.

She'd been away on a long undercover mission and the four of them didn't want to disturb her, but they might have to if Starblast wanted to get down.

"Bee can't you just jump up?" Nightwire asked in a hushed voice as Starblast peered over the edge at them.

Slag it wasn't even that big! It barely reached Ironhide's waist! Bee's head almost reached the top, but he wasn't strong enough to reach over lift Starblast and place her on the floor.

So there she perched, and then she grinned.

"Oh scrap." Nightwire muttered seeing her face.

"She's got an idea." Spitfire groaned and Bee took a few quick steps back.

"I think she's going to jump."

Starblast wobbled on the edge with the ends of her feet teetering over the edge as she swung her arms backwards in preparation.

"She is going to jump." Spitfire agreed.

"And she is going to hurt herself." Nightwire added.

Bee was the only one who was panicking, holding his arms out as though he could possibly catch her when she leapt from the heap of scrap parts and ruined medical kits.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE PIT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Apparently, Chromia had woken up.


End file.
